Traditionally nurses deposit bloodied surgical instruments into a container of sterile solution immediately after use, for later retrieval and sterilization (regarding which numerous options are available). The intention of this post-use procedure is to keep the blood from drying on the instruments, which is undesirable for several reasons (including the fact that the proteins in the blood attack stainless steel).
However, the blood has a tendency to render the originally sterile solution cloudy or murky, and to render it difficult or impossible to see the instrument or instruments which have been deposited into the container. Moreover many such instruments are extraordinarily sharp and if a person reaches for an instrument which cannot be seen clearly, there is grave danger of an accidental occupational exposure, such as a cut or puncture, to health-care personnel.
Moreover, the recent increase in accidents in which health-care personnel have been accidentally infected with hepatitis or HIV virus has caused the federal government to generate new OSHA-mandated safety requirements directed at eliminating the possibility of such life-threatening accidents.
Accordingly there exists an urgent need for modification of the traditional handling techniques in order to maximally reduce the possibility of handling accidents.
Also there exists a concomitant need to introduce modified handling techniques compatible with maximal flexibility as regards the choice of subsequent sterilization techniques (four different methods of which now have widespread adoption, with no one method being universally preferred).
Finally, in case a convenient solution to the preceding problem and other closely-related operating room problems can be provided by the organized and systematic use of an easily-assembled combination of devices comprising altogether a new system for medical procedures, there exists an obvious need for a complete, unified set of the component devices of such a system to be available as an integrated combination in a sterilized, storable, prepackaged kit which can be maintained as a compact and sterile unit until actual opening of the package and assembly is required.